Masked Knight
by Danny2202
Summary: Declan Knight has been a member of Torchwood for four years. As part of a secret alien organisation for so long, Declan is used to keeping secrets but just how many secrets does he have?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

For the base of a secret organisation making up a grand total of six team members, the hub was huge. Captain Jack Harkness wasn't normally one to complain about the copious amount of space his own underground base took up but he had identified a serious con to its size; his team could easily hide from him. The problem wasn't so much with Tosh, Owen and Suzie – who could typically be found hanging around their workstations (though the quantity of work actually getting done, particularly by Owen, could be debated) – but rather with the younger members of his team; Ianto and Declan.

Ianto, in the three months since he had joined Torchwood Three, had taken on a wide range of responsibilities which could result in him being anywhere from the tourist office to his coffee machine to the cells to the archives. Declan, meanwhile, in the four years he had been a part of the team, had never made a habit of staying in one place at one time. His workstation was regularly left unmanned in favour of the armoury filled with alien weapons or down in the archives destroying Ianto's work and pulling out old pieces of alien technology of which previously had no known function to the Torchwood team.

Tracking down Declan had only gotten harder in the recent months since Ianto's employment. The two young men – who were only months apart in age – had struck up quite a friendship despite Ianto's tendency to slip into the background. Jack had often found Declan having a cup of coffee and a chat with Ianto as opposed to getting on with some work.

On this occasion, after searching the whole hub and finding Ianto alone and busy working in the archives, Jack had resorted to wandering down to the lower levels of the hub in his search for the young alien tech analyst. With the lower levels being made up of old storage rooms they had no use for, Jack wasn't really expecting to find Declan down there, however, unless he had left the hub without telling him, there really was nowhere else the other man could be.

Rounding a corner, Jack almost collided with the man he was searching for and Declan let out a small yelp of surprise before collecting himself. "Captain! What are you doing down here?" Declan questioned after clearing his throat.

"I could ask you the same question," Jack responded instantly, showing no signs of providing an answer to Declan's question.

"Just, checking the lighting," Declan answered with a casual shrug as he lifted up the tool bag he held in his right hand. "Never know when these rooms might actually come in useful. Not that they actually have in the years I've been here. But you never know."

"It's not exactly the most pressing job that you need to do right now," Jack pointed out to him as he turned and started leading the way back towards the steps which lead back up to the main area of the hub. Declan wasted no time in following after him. "I'm still waiting on the costing report on the glove research and the current findings."

"Don't look at me!" Declan retorted as he fell in step beside Jack as the pair climbed the stairs side by side. Jack shot him an enquiring glance. "Suzie pulled rank on that one. She was all 'I'm the only one who can use it. There's no use in you writing a report on something you can't even function.' To be honest, she's welcome to it. I've still got my plate full with all that tech we scavenged from the fall of Torchwood One."

"That was three months ago," Jack reminded him as they turned the corner onto the next flight of stairs.

It was Declan's turn to give the questioning glance, "I know."

"Then why are you prioritising lights in an area unused for years over further developing your knowledge and understanding of alien technology that we have in our archives?" Jack questioned to which, uncharacteristically, Declan had no response. "For all we know, some of that technology could be extremely dangerous and if that's the case, it belongs in the secure archives."

"Yeah… good point," Declan agreed, unable to argue with Jack's point. "I'll get on that," Declan promised, his eyes flashing with enthusiasm. Jack knew Declan had a passion for exploring alien technology with the purpose of identifying its function, purpose and possible applications in their own world and it was for that reason that he couldn't understand why it was taking Declan so long to get through the Torchwood One technology. Owen, Suzie, Tosh and Declan himself had scavenged a lot from the wreckage but there had been many days in the months since where Jack had found the man distracted with something else. Whilst Declan was full of energy and often hyperactive, it wasn't typical for him to get distracted as easily as he had been getting in recent months.

"Just keep on top of your workload," Jack advised as they reached the centre of the hub. Declan nodded in response, adding his usual salute for good measure.

"Coffee, sir?" Ianto questioned from where he was stood by Tosh's workstation upon spotting Jack and Declan's presence.

"When do I ever turn down that offer?" Jack countered with a grin as he took the steps up to the raised platform, appearing to be making his way towards his office. Declan followed behind him, making his own way to his cluttered workstation, filled as usual with random bits of alien technology.

"I noticed the archives were in a bit of a mess when I went by them earlier," Declan told Ianto as he walked past the man who was starting to make his way towards the coffee machine. That comment made him stop in his tracks, Declan effectively capturing his full attention.

"They looked fine when I went by them half an hour ago," Jack commented from his position leaning, arms folded, in his office doorway looking out at the workstation area.

"Yeah, but Jack, look at how we categorised 'fine' before Ianto started and sorted them out," Declan argued as he slouched down into his chair, spinning it around so to face Jack. "To Ianto, one thing out of place in there is like you leaving the Torchwood door wide open for anyone to walk in and see what we're hiding in here."

Ianto appeared to stiffen. "I'll be right back," he told them before turning and heading for set of stairs which led down towards the archives.

"Oh nice job, Declan," Owen spoke up, voice dripping with sarcasm as he took his eyes off his computer to face the younger man. "He'll be down there for at least an hour now and he was about to make us coffee."

Declan smirked at Owen's complaints. "You could always make it yourself," Declan suggested as he span his chair around to face his desk and figure out just what he was working on before he'd gotten distracted.

"Yeah right," Owen scoffed, "Have you seen how complicated that machine he's bought is? You need a degree in rocket science to figure that thing out."

"It's a _coffee machine_," Declan emphasised with a roll of his eyes as he picked a piece of technology which looked suspiciously like a bomb up off his desk. "Try figuring out how to use this thing," he challenged as he chucked the spherical piece of technology in Owen's direction.

Owen's latest medical report which had been in his hands – and unfortunately (for him) yet to be stapled – was absentmindedly dropped and scattered across the floor in Owen's panicked attempt to safely and carefully catch the item which looked horribly like some kind of explosive device. "Are you insane? You could have blown us up!" Owen exclaimed as he stared at the sphere in his hands suspiciously.

"Am I that irresponsible?" Declan scoffed to which he received looks from both Owen and Tosh which screamed 'yes'. "Jesus, relax! It's a translating device. Whoever designed it is clever though. Not only does it help the aliens to communicate with thick lifeforms who can only speak one language but it can also trick said thick lifeforms into thinking it's some form of explosive device."

The comment was obviously not appreciated by Owen as Declan had to duck to avoid getting smacked in the head by an alien translating device moving towards him at quite some speed. Jack and Tosh both shook their heads in disbelief at the pair's antics.

"If you two are done messing around," Suzie interrupted the fun and games, walking over to the 'work' stations with her phone in her hand, "It appears there's been another murder. Another opportunity to test the glove?"

All heads turned to Jack to see him pulling on his long coat. "Let's go," he confirmed. Owen, Tosh and Declan were on their feet in no time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Turning up at crime scenes was becoming an all too common occurrence for Torchwood as far as Declan was concerned. If he wanted to look at murdered bodies, he would have applied for a police academy as opposed to an engineering course at Cardiff University. Nevertheless, he couldn't deny the fact that strolling into a crime scene like he owned the place as if he was in some kind of detective show felt damn cool. It was just a shame it was raining and night time, otherwise he certainly would have rocked up wearing sunglasses.

As Suzie took all the time in the world getting the glove powered up whilst they stood in the freezing rain, Declan didn't feel at all confident about how the next few minutes were going to go. The last two times they had used the glove didn't exactly go to plan. The most recent time had been the most amusing though, with Owen getting punched being one of the highlights of his week.

Whilst Jack rambled on about rain, oestrogen and pregnancy, Declan's attention dropped to the man they were about to bring back to life. He was young; certainly no older than twenty and Declan found himself imagining just how heartbroken his parents must be. No parent should have to live with outliving their children.

"I can't just flick a switch," Suzie was informing the team as Declan let his focus return to his work. "It's more like access. It grants me access," Suzie explained.

"Whatever that means," Owen muttered as Declan rolled his eyes. Suzie was really making a meal out of being in charge of the alien technology for once and he didn't like it. He didn't walk into work and try and take over her job; not that anyone would actually listen to his orders. Besides, the glove hadn't worked for him so Suzie hadn't been given much of a choice but to take over on that occasion. She could be less dramatic about the whole thing though. "If I get punched again, I'm punching him right back."

"What did you expect? Asking the woman if she'd cheated on her husband?" Declan questioned as he fought back the laughter that always came when images of Owen getting punched by the forty-five year old woman popped into his head.

"He was the police's prime suspect at the time! All she was doing was screaming for an ambulance, I thought I'd try and get something out of her," Owen defended himself.

"It was insensitive," Declan told him matter-of-factly as Suzie seemed to finally be getting somewhere with 'accessing' the glove.

"You two argue like brothers," Suzie commented as she knelt down behind the victim's head, finally looking ready to use the glove.

"Don't even joke," Jack responded immediately as he moved behind Tosh so to oversee the next two minutes. "Now concentrate," Jack ordered, sending a brief glance in Owen and Declan's direction. "Suzie," Jack said as he gave her a nod, encouraging her to use the gauntlet. Suzie slowly moved her hands forward and cradled the young man's head in her hands. Upon contact, the gauntlet buzzed into action; the crime scene lights glared brighter and the rain came to a sudden stop.

The young man's eyes shot open, wide and alert as they shot between the five strangers he could see stood around him. "There was. What was. I was, I was, oh my god; I was going home," he stammered as he slowly seemed to recall what had happened.

After both Owen and Declan had both attempted speaking to the previous victims with very little avail, Jack had chosen to give Tosh a go at the job. With the new technique they were trying in terms of being straight up about the fact that the victim had been killed, Tosh seemed like the best choice to break the news perhaps more sensitively than the two men would have.

"Listen to me," Tosh spoke up in an urgent yet equally soothing and reassuring tone. She'd crouched down onto the young man's level so not to tower over him. "We've only got two minutes so it's important that you listen, okay?"

The young man seemed to calm a little as his eyes rested on Tosh. "Who are you?" He asked.

"Trust me," Tosh replied, appearing to ignore his question. Declan didn't blame her; with less than two minutes to go trying to explain what Torchwood was would be a waste of time. "You're dead," Tosh broke the news to the man and Declan wasn't sure whether those were the best words to follow 'trust me'.

The young man gasped, panic returning to his face at that information and any attention that Tosh had initially gained from the man had been lost with that revelation. His eyes were once again flicking around the five strangers around him, searching for some kind of answer. "Why am I dead?" The man questioned, fear evident in his voice.

"Who attacked you?" Tosh questioned, once again ignoring the man's question in her urgency to get some form of useful information out of the two minutes. With the way the man had reacted, Declan didn't see Tosh succeeding anymore than he or Owen had.

"I don't want to be dead," the man was also ignoring the questions that Tosh was asking him, understandably struggling to get his head around the fact that he was dead. It was becoming clearer as the two minutes went on that telling the victim that they were dead was not the way to go about things.

"Sixty seconds," Suzie warned Tosh from her position behind the young man. Declan and Owen shared a look, both in agreement for once that they weren't going to get anywhere in the final minute.

"You've got to think. Just focus on me," Tosh urged, regaining the attention of the man once again as his gaze returned to being fixed on her. "What was the last thing you saw?"

"I don't know. I didn't see," came the man's response, his voice sounding shaky and panicked. Declan didn't blame him. From what he'd seen of the three victims being brought back to life, resurrection seemed disorientating and scary.

"Who killed you? Did you see them?" Tosh questioned intently, fully aware that she was running out of time.

"I don't know," the man responded again, "There was something behind me."

"Police said one stab wound in the back," Owen spoke up from behind the small camcorder device he was using to record the scene.

Tosh's shoulders slumped at that news; the likelihood of her getting anything from the young man well and truly dropped. "So you didn't see anything."

"No," the man confirmed before once again looking amongst the small group formed around him. Declan found himself avoiding making eye contact with the man, instead looking at Jack whose expression was unreadable. "What happens now?"

A silence filled the street for a few seconds and, for the first time, murmurs and conversations from the crowd gathered behind the police tape could be heard by the Torchwood team. None of the team could find the right words to answer the man's question. They had approached the third victim with the aim to be brutally honest about his predicament but none of them could bring it upon themselves to tell him that he was essentially about to die for the second time that night.

"Thirty seconds," Suzie broke the silence with her countdown, her urgent tone pressing for someone to say or do something.

"But he didn't see anyone," Tosh reminded her, not that any of them had forgotten that fact.

"Don't waste it," Suzie insisted.

"What else can I say?" Tosh asked, looking around at her colleagues for help. Owen shrugged unhelpfully whilst Declan just looked to Jack who always seemed to know what to do in any situation.

Jack moved forwards and crouched down besides Tosh, his movement gaining the attention of the young man on the ground. "What's your name?" Jack asked.

"John. John Tucker," the man answered, the normal question seeming to help calm him down.

"Okay, John. Not long now," Jack told him gently, keeping his voice low and calm so to minimise John's panic.

"Who are you?" John asked.

"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack responded immediately, keeping the conversation going in an effort to distract John. "Tell me, what was it like when you died? What did you see?" Jack enquired. There was a silence as John seemed to think over the question and recall the event. He opened his mouth, about to answer, then appeared to hesitate. "John, tell me what you saw," Jack urged.

"Nothing. I saw nothing," John answered, the panic and concern returning once again to his voice. "Oh my God. There's nothing." With that depressing information disclosed, the life drained from John's body as the gauntlet in Suzie's possession powered down and the rain proceeded to plummet upon the Torchwood team once more.

"Shit!" Owen exclaimed as he stopped the recording and shoved the camcorder away. "I said it was stupid, telling him he was dead!"

"It was worth a try," Declan shrugged, though he had also never shared high hopes that the different approach would work. "It's not like anything else we tried worked."

"Trust me," Owen scoffed with a roll of his eyes as he repeated the words Tosh had said to John before coming out with the news that he was dead. "Like that was gonna work."

"You told the last corpse she was injured. She wasted the whole two minutes screaming for an ambulance," Jack reminded him as he stood up and stuck his hands into the pockets of his coat. "Maybe there's no right way of doing it. What do you think?" Jack raised his voice when he posed his question and his head shoot up to look at the parking structure towering above the alley.

Declan followed his gaze to see a policewoman watching them from above. Upon being called out, she backed away from the edge of the structure and ran. Declan glanced back at Jack who didn't seem concerned about the police witness to their alien technology. Then again, who would believe her?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Jack awoke the next morning determined to find out who their witness was the previous night. He didn't think she would be much of a concern. No one would believe her if she ran around claiming John Tucker had been brought back to life for a few minutes but she would have overheard some things about Torchwood. If she knew things about them, it was only right he found out some things about her.

Jack walked out of his office in search of some coffee after Ianto had spent a considerable amount of time one night showing him how to use it. Jack could have sworn that Ianto kept changing the instructions each time he had talked him through it but after about two hours, he had finally gotten the hang of it. It meant he could now make his own coffees in the mornings without having to wait for Ianto to get to work.

As he passed Owen's workstation, Jack had to do a double-take after spotting movement by the stairs which led to the archives and lower levels. On his second look, Jack registered Declan's presence in the hub. The younger man was making his way towards the workstations and smiled as he approached Jack. "Good morning, Captain," Declan greeted his boss with a grin as he dropped down into his chair.

Jack turned and looked at him suspiciously. Declan was not a morning person and in the four years he had been working at Torchwood, Jack had gotten used to him arriving late and barely saying a word for the first half an hour. "What are you doing here?" Jack challenged.

"I work here," Declan answered slowly, emphasising each word. "What's the matter with you? Did you hit your head?"

"You're an hour early," Jack pointed out to him.

"Is it a crime to be eager now?" Declan retorted immediately as he powered on his computer and began trying to create some order amongst the pile of files and alien technology on his workstation.

"It's not like you. You're always late. Are you sure one of those devices you're always playing with hasn't affected you or something?" Jack questioned, sounded genuinely concerned much to Declan's frustration. He knew how to work safely with alien technology. "Maybe Owen should check you out when he gets in?"

"Or _maybe _you can get off my case," Declan snapped in frustration, getting up from his chair to stand face-to-face with Jack. The two were almost the same height with Declan just a few centimetres short of Jack's height. "Yesterday, you lecture me about getting on top of my workload. Now that I'm here early trying to do just that, you assume there has to be something wrong with me?" Declan scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Make your mind up, Harkness," he added before turning away, grabbing the first piece of alien tech he saw off his desk and heading for the archives away from Jack.

-T:EC-

When Declan returned from the archives an hour and a half later, the rest of the team had since gotten in. Suzie was at her desk, deep in thought as she looked at what Declan could only assume to be the costing report for her glove research. Ianto was at the coffee machine, no doubt making the normal round of morning coffees.

Jack, Owen and Tosh were gathered around Tosh's workstation computer. As Declan took the steps on to the workstation platform, he could see that Tosh had pulled the police employee database up on her screen. Wordlessly, Declan stood next to Owen to get a better look at the screen, spotting that the three had successfully identified their witness of the previous night's events. "PC Gwen Cooper, born 16th August 1978," Tosh read off the screen.

"Keep your eyes peeled. If you see her hanging around again, we might have to find out how much she actually knows," Jack ordered as he began to move away from the workstation.

"What is that incessant beeping?" Suzie questioned from across the hub. The other four frowned initially but once Suzie had brought it to their attention, the loud obnoxious beeping was hard to miss.

"Oh! That's me!" Declan exclaimed upon eventually recognising the noise. He spun around, taking the few steps from Tosh's workstation to his own at speed. It took a couple of seconds of him rooting around the mess on his workstation before he triumphantly held up the source of the noise. It was a thick, black, rectangular device with an antennae coming out of the top of it. He fumbled with a few buttons and effectively silenced the noise before looking up at the team, grinning massively.

"What is that thing?" Owen questioned. He was still stood by Tosh's workstation, his arms folded, but had turned to watch Declan.

"It's my Weevil Activity Detector 2.0. Or, as I like to call it, WAD," Declan answered immediately, still grinning triumphantly.

"Oh, no way," was Owen's immediate response upon realising the obnoxious alarm was the device picking up supposed Weevil activity. "Last time we used that thing it sent us on a wild goose chase through a swamp. There weren't even any Weevils."

"Admittedly, that was an error on my behalf. I didn't calibrate it properly, but I've amended that since and tested it on Janet. It works," Declan insisted but his grin fell when he saw that both Owen and Tosh were looking at him doubtfully and Suzie hadn't made any effort to turn her attention away from her report. Declan turned his attention to Jack. "Trust me?" He pleaded, unsure how the other man would react after his own outburst that morning.

There was a horrible silence which seemed to last for hours as Jack stared in Declan's direction. Declan held his gaze, determined not to break eye contact. His device worked, he was sure of it, he just needed a chance to prove it to the rest of the team. "Where?" Jack eventually asked, successfully returning Declan's ecstatic grin.

Declan glanced back down at the device to confirm the location. "Oh, that's not good," he frowned as the location name popped up in bold letters at the top of the screen. "It's at the hospital. St Helen's."

"Ianto!" Jack called as the man in question was making his way down the stairs from the coffee machine, a tray fill of hot drinks in his hand. "Bring the SUV round."

-T:EC-

"Let me get this straight," Owen started as he followed behind Declan down a hospital corridor he could have sworn they'd already been down. "We've sealed off an entire floor of a hospital because some device says there's a weevil up there. Now, despite seeing no sign of any Weevils on our initial search and when we sealed the floor off, we're still trusting some device that has failed before?"

"Owen's got a point. Jack's plan to lure it out is solid but there might not be anything to lure out," Suzie added as she and Tosh followed behind the boys.

"But there _might _be," Tosh countered, using Suzie's wording against her. "And if we leave now and there is one there and it attacks someone, that will be on us for not trusting Declan's device."

"All I'm saying is," Owen responded as they rounded a corner into another corridor, "We've trusted Declan's device before and ended up knee-deep in swamp shit."

"You're starting to sound like a broken record, Owen," Declan commented. Unlike the rest of the team, Declan was confident that his updated device was working properly. The sooner they tracked down the Weevil, the sooner he could prove Owen wrong and shut him up about the swamp.

"Seriously, Dec. Weevils like it underground in the sewers. There's not going to be one up here in a sterile hospital," Owen insisted moments before a scream sounded out from the corridor up ahead.

"You were saying Owen?" Jack challenged as in broke into a run, sprinting past Declan and leading his team, who were all hot on his heels, towards the source of the scream.

Bursting through a set of hospital doors, the Torchwood team were met by the sight of a hospital porter's neck being torn out by a Weevil. In any other situation, which didn't involve a man being mauled to death, Declan would have shot an '_I told you so' _in Owen's direction. Instead, he set straight to work spraying the Weevil alongside Tosh and Owen wrestled with the alien whilst Suzie got the hood over its head.

Jack, who had left his team to deal with the Weevil whilst he got the onlooker to safety, came running back down the corridor towards them. "We need to get moving. PC Cooper has just witnessed another Torchwood phenomenon," Jack briefly explained to them. "Suzie, Tosh; get the Weevil to the SUV. Owen; help me with the body. Declan; clean up the scene and open it up. Quick as you can and catch us up. Something tells me our police friend is going to want some answers after the past two days. Let's move it," Jack ordered and the team promptly jumped into action, leaving Declan on his own in the empty hospital corridors.

Declan didn't like hospitals as it was; they were too clean, too white and a symbol of sickness and death. Being in an empty hospital corridor was even more creepy which only spurred him on more to get the job done in record time. It didn't take him long to find some cleaning spray to mop up the blood. Getting the plastic sheet down, which they'd used to close off the top floor, was the easiest part before he sprinted back down the corridor to catch up with the rest of the team.

Declan caught up with the team at the SUV, just as Owen was closing the boot, shutting the sedated Weevil into the caged section of the back. Ianto had kept the engine running whilst they'd been busy hunting down the Weevil and his foot was on the accelerator before Owen and Declan had a chance to close their respective doors as they had simultaneously jumped into the car. "Good work, Declan," Jack praised from the front seat.

"Thank you, Captain," Declan replied before finally getting the chance to shoot his "I told you so" at Owen who pulled a face at him in response. Declan simply stuck his tongue out at the doctor which resulted in Suzie muttering something which included the word 'immature' under her breath.

"You were right, Jack," Ianto spoke up after checking his mirror to see a uniformed police car following their every turn. "It appears PC Cooper is following us."

"Drop us off at the water tower. We'll use the lift's perception filter," Jack responded immediately, making it obvious that he had already planned for the situation.

"That won't stop her from trying to find out more about us," Suzie pointed out, "We've captured her interest now."

"It will get her off our backs for now," Jack replied and he seemed happy enough with that for the time being.


End file.
